Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1887-11-14
DAILY HERALD.
SALT LAKE.

ne1emO-EnfOfCeNN hSscs
Norman sermon - TRAITS M"
WormOn Ama-Raiiroad Extern"
~s~u-The salt Lake ana Los All
geles Railway
Dr.R HrsALp. The passenger VINO
leaves Los Angeles on Sunday even
inc at 7 80 awakens on Wednesday
morning about an hours ride west OF
oglen He sees on his left hand the
Graded track which the Union Pacific
Railway pressed on to Promontory,
paralleling the Central Pacific, and
which patch of roadbed the latter
company was afterwards obliged to
buy. found Ogden, where an ex-
cellent breakfast was served, very
much improved, in comparison with
its condition thirteen years ago. The
place is going ahead rapidly. After
skirting the lake for acouple of hours,
Salt Lake City burst upon me with all
the force OF novelty, as | had never
seen it before.
Inc HTst tuluS VI hoiohe .
takes the eye is the uncompleted Tenn
pie, whose towers rear themselves
to a goodly height, and which Is built
of very attractive looking granite,
almost as white as marble. An old
fashioned, long omnibus, like those In
use in New York City, a quarter of a
century ago, draws the passenger to
his hotel, the two principal hostel
ries being the old and well-known
Walker House, and the Cullen, pre-
tentious building which has been late
l. erected.
The principal business street OF Salt
Lake CITY is called East Temple, all
the leading thoroughfares being, awk-
wardly enough, called East and West
Temple. First West Temple, Second
West Temple, etc. In approaching
the Temple you pass by the Mormon
Tithing House, and | was interested In
observing that wagons Of potatoes and
other produce were standing In front
Of it ready to discharge their loads.
Some three millions of dollars have
already been spent on the Temple,
whose erection was begun on the 9th
day of April, 1858, as an inscription
upon it in gilt letters informs the vlsl-
tor. The guide gives sightseers the in
formation that the building, as it will
be when completed, was seen in WIS.,
ion by Brigham Young, and that no
human architect could hope to give its
plan. This is another way OF saying
that it is fearfully and wonderfully
made. He claims that it is modelled on
Masonic symbols and revelation. Out
side o. certain outlandish innovations.
in the shape of grotesque rings and
other disfgurements, it is really con-
fusion of many types of Christian &C.
clesiastical architecture, without so
much as an approach to its grace and
and purity. Immediately behind it
stands the Tabernacle, which has been
described too often to call for detailed
repetition here. Suffice it to say that
il is modelled on beehive, and its ex-
terror does not begin to suggest its
vast seating capacity, which our
guide claimed was ten thou
sand, although it had been known
on SPECIAL occasions to hold twelve
and perhaps fourteen thousand peo-
pie. Its wonderful acoustic proper
ties have been trumpeted all over the
world, and witnessed the truth of the
yaunts. A friend and myself stood on
the platform in front of the organ,
while our conductor went back to the
extreme rear of the building and drop
ped pin, whose fall was distinctly
heard by the former, whose hearing
was good. Owing to mine being de-
fective | failed to catch the sound.
The organ itself is marvel of size
and it is said to be notably melodious
as we'll. 1t was built light into the
foundation of the Tabernacle and
stands fiity-six feet high, is thirty-two
feet broad and thirty feet deep. Its
like is not to be often met with
ENFORCED LISTENING To A SERMON.
The guide by this time had got
hold of some four inquisitive visitors,
and his next move was to take them
over into what he called the Assembly
Hall, an edifice which has more pre-
tensions to exterior architectural
beauty than either the Temple or the
Tabernacle, Its interior, however,
was bizarre ID the extreme. The
ceilings were covered with lot OF
paintings of a very inferior descrip-
ton, all wretchedly out of perspective.
Joseph Smith was represented in two
of them kneeling, in the one case,
before John the Baptist, and receiv-
ing from that long-suffering saint the
rite of the ''Aaronic Priesthood" and
in the other as receiving from three
of the Apostles the rite of the priest
hood according to the Order
Of Melchisedek.' In both i'm
portant ceremonies the Prophet
Smith was depicted with the stand-up
collar which was in vogue many years
ago. He looked very much like a
dude tryingto ape devotion. Here is
where the guide got his work in. He
had four unfortunate wights seated
in a row before him. He was pro-
tected by their conventional reverence
for anything called church, and he
turned himself loose on Mormon
polemics with vengeance. Like
Wordsworth babbling brook, he
ran on and on until it seemed to us
he would run ON forever. The way he
doyetailed Mormonism on to Christi
anity and interlarded his description
with arguments in favor of the dogmas
of Brigham Young would have ex-
cited the admiration OF Philadelphia
lawyer. What mattered it to him
what agony was endured by his audi
tors? He spoke with rich Cornish
accent, and the way he pill double
negatives on each other, like Pelion
upon Ossa, would have petrified a
Lindley Murray, while his utter igno-
rance that such thing as demon
strative adjective pronoun existed was
positively childlike and bland. At
last he saw that our patience was at
an end, and consented to let us get
ont. Never was breathed the blessed
Air of heaven with more ecstatic de.
light than by us four when we at last
stood fairly beyond the reach of his
resistless but Punic eloquence.